“Helen, do you really just use kitchen scraps on all your camellias?” I get this question at least twice a year, usually from someone who’s seen a photo of my garden and assumes my 200-plus plants must be thriving on nothing but coffee grounds and good intentions. The honest answer is no. And I’m going … Read more
Last spring, a gardener from North Carolina emailed me a question that stopped me in my tracks. She’d been reading the usual camellia companion-planting advice—the same azaleas and hydrangeas everyone recommends—and asked something wonderfully practical: “What actually grows there in nature, where camellias come from?” It’s a question I’d never been asked directly, but it … Read more
Every spring, someone stops by my patio and asks the same question while eyeing my collection of potted camellias: “Can I plant something else in there with it?” I understand the appeal completely. A 50-litre pot devoted to a single camellia can feel like wasted space, especially when you’re juggling dozens of containers in a … Read more
Monthly Camellia Care Calendar: What to Do Every Month of the Year After decades of growing camellias in my garden, I’ve learned that success comes from understanding what your plants need at each stage of their annual cycle. Rather than treating camellia care as a vague year-round task, I’ve found it enormously helpful to follow … Read more
Every spring, I get the same email from frustrated gardeners. Their camellia is lush, green, and absolutely thriving — except for one glaring problem. No flowers. Not a single bloom. If you are dealing with a camellia not blooming, I want you to know something important: this is almost always fixable. After twenty years of … Read more
I was standing at the RHS Garden Show last spring when a gardener approached my display table with the question I hear at least once a month: “Which camellia should I buy—sasanqua or japonica?” She held two plant labels, clearly torn between them, and I smiled. After twenty years growing over two hundred named camellia … Read more
Three years ago, I redesigned a bed around my beloved Camellia × williamsii ‘Donation’. It had become a lonely specimen, gorgeous in February but surrounded by bare earth and the wrong neighbours. I realised then that camellia companion plants weren’t a luxury—they were the difference between a specimen shrub and a garden that sings for … Read more
I spent fifteen years buying camellias labelled “compact” at garden centres, only to watch them sprawl into six-foot monsters that swallowed my borders. That’s when I learned the hard way: camellia sizing is gloriously confusing, and the tag doesn’t always tell you what you really need to know. If you garden in a small space—or … Read more
I’ll never forget the moment at last year’s winter garden society meeting when someone asked me, “Helen, which camellias smell nice?” The room fell silent. Three dozen camellia enthusiasts looked at me expectantly, and I had to deliver news that surprised almost everyone: most camellias don’t smell at all. Their faces fell. It was as … Read more
Five years ago, I made a bold decision. My beloved 15-year-old ‘Donation’ camellia—a sprawling, generous beauty with crimson blooms and a spread of four feet—was casting too much shade over my new tea garden. She needed to move. I remember standing in front of her, pruning shears in hand, wondering if I was about to … Read more
